Hawks coach Quin Snyder notches 500th career win

Hawks coach Quin Snyder has joined the 500 club.

Following the Hawks’ 123-113 win over the Kings on Saturday, the veteran coach notched his 500th career win. He became the sixth active NBA head coach to reach 500 wins and the 41st in NBA history.

In the locker room after the game, players congratulated Snyder with a water-bottle shower to celebrate the milestone.

“It was special,” Snyder said in his postgame availability. “It’s cool. When you’ve been in this league for a while, you realize that coaches, they keep their record, but it’s really the players and the other people that allow for that to happen.

Snyder has a long coaching history that began in the early 1990s as an assistant with the Clippers. He also served as an assistant at his alma mater, Duke, before taking the lead role at Missouri.

He returned to the NBA, becoming coach of the Spurs’ D League franchise, the Austin Toros (now the now G League’s Austin Spurs). He then served as an assistant with the 76ers, the Lakers, CSKA Moscow and the Hawks before the Jazz hired him as head coach in 2014.

Snyder led the Jazz to the playoffs five times in his eight-year tenure.

After a brief hiatus following the end of his time in Utah in 2022, the Hawks hired Snyder in 2023. He’s coached the Hawks to the postseason in each of his first three seasons in Atlanta.

This season, Snyder has led the Hawks to a 42-33 record. Since the All-Star break, the Hawks have won 16 of their 19 games — including an 11-game win streak from Feb. 22-March 18 — for the best postbreak record in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks also have won 12 consecutive games at State Farm Arena, the team’s longest single-season home win streak since 2014-15.

“On behalf of the organization, I’d like to congratulate Coach Snyder on reaching 500 career wins,” Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh said in a statement provided by the team.

“This is a truly special milestone that is reflective of his unique ability to consistently put his players in a position to be successful, his relentless preparation and the trust and outcomes he establishes with our players. This season is a microcosm of what Coach Snyder has done throughout his career, making the whole greater than the sum of the parts. His passion and leadership continue to elevate our entire program, and we are proud to celebrate this achievement alongside him.”

Over his coaching tenure, Snyder has become highly regarded for his player development. Under his guidance, Jalen Johnson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Onyeka Okongwu and Dyson Daniels have put up career-best seasons.

Johnson, a first-time NBA All-Star, has averaged career highs in points, rebounds and assists. The 24-year-old is on pace to become just the fifth player in NBA history to average at least 22 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in a season.

Alexander-Walker has improved his scoring by 11.1 points per game. He has averaged a career-high 20.5 points, the third-highest increase from one season to the next in the last 25 seasons, per the Hawks via Elias Sports Bureau.

“Quin has been nothing short of a support system,” Alexander-Walker, who has played his way into the Most Improved Player conversation, said Saturday. “Someone I can lean on like a rock, as well. So, for me, I’m glad I could just share some success with him.

“This season for me, I’ve been able to celebrate some success of my own, and he was right there to cheer me on, to help me improve throughout the season to get to this point, push me to continue to not be hard on myself.”